ECR Newsletter

May 9, 2022

SO, WHAT'S NEW? - By Michael K2SHF

First off, I hope all the mothers out there had a lovely Mother's Day. The weather here on Long Island was far from pleasant, but doing something fun with my mom surely made up for Mother Nature.

Let me be the first to congratulate Caleb, KO4UYJ, on being voted in as our newest facilitator for the East Coast Reflector. Caleb has been hard at work for the past several months on project after project, including the all new ECR App and the P25 and M17 bridges to the system. Caleb already has other projects underway. He is also busy as a Control Station on the system, and helps users who need it as well. We look forward to seeing what else Caleb will be coming up with in the future.

The ECR name badges are a hit. Many of our ECR family have already gotten their badges, and I've heard nothing but positive reviews. You can order yours at https://thesignman.com/clubs/eastcoastreflector.html. The ECR makes no money on these. Check it out and see if this is something you'd like to add to your ECR swag.

MORNING BREW Q&A - By Michael K2SHF

Thank you to all who checked in to the Morning Brew. The following are answers to some of our recent daily questions.

We asked the following questions. As always, only answers with a tally of 2 or more were included below. Thanks to Derby Dan (KD2VNU) for his hard work in logging the answers and tallying the results after each net.

ECR BIRTHDAYS

The following hams are celebrating a birthday over the next week. Happy Birthday to you all!

KJ4TPE, Rick of Orange City FL, has a birthday on Monday, May 9th
W2AJR, Andy of Cheektowaga NY, has a birthday on Saturday, May 14th

Would you like your birthday recognized in the Newsletter and on the air during the Tech Net? Just send an email to K2SHF(at)ARRL(dot)NET with your callsign and birthdate. Your birthday will then be added to our spreadsheet.

WORGENERAL ELECTRIC MASTR II’s and MOTOROLA MICORS...THEY LIVE ON!!!!
By Henry WB4IVB

Yes, the spelling is correct, GE Mastr II, not Master II. I saw my first Mastr II mobile in the early 1970’s. It was installed in a Kentucky State Police cruiser. KSP began an upgrade from Low Band to UHF 453/458 MHz during this time period and operated both systems until each Post had completed the upgrade.

It is a well-known fact that manufacturers in that time era purchased their respective competitor's equipment and then dissected it in their engineering labs. A hands-on approach one might say.

Reliability plus serviceability was a much strived after feature that both GE and Motorola were developing. The concept was simple, design a solid-state two-way transceiver that could easily be serviced in the “field”, and get the customer back on the air asap. However, this took many hours of research and development. Both Motorola and GE were highly successful. Both produced Mobiles and Stations/Repeaters with interchangeable circuit boards that could be removed and installed without soldering.

The result was two highly reliable/quick serviceability radio lines, the GE Mastr II and the Motorola Micor series. MICOR was named for “More Integrated Circuits for Optimum Reliability”. The Micor mobile radios brought the development of the infamous “Micor Squelch”. This concept incorporates a two-level hysteresis type squelch control circuit, allowing a weak signal to present a slow squelch closure, and a full quieting signal a fast squelch closure.

Many agencies purchased spare boards for the most common failures. A portable test set could also be used to assist in locating a fault, and/or adjusting. The defective board could then be taken back to the shop, repaired, and become a ready spare. The station/repeater power supplies were of fairly simple design, and being solid-state, no high voltage was necessary unless rf power was above 110 Watts, which required a high voltage power supply. Both Mastr II and Micor mobiles and stations require a key to open.

GE manufactured many radios after the Mastr II, including Mastr Executive II, Custom MVP, Mastr III, Rangr, Delta, Phoenix, Orion, but Mastr II was by far their most popular unit. Ericsson joined with GE around 1989, and continued the GE two-way manufacturing. Eventually GE sold their interest in the two-way market.

Motorola of course remains a premier manufacturer and leader in the two-way communications industry today.

The Narrow Banding mandate by the FCC made both the Mastr II and the Micor obsolete for commercial radio service even though the units were or for the most part still fully functional. when removed from service. Today many are still in use by amateurs as repeaters throughout the world, and in use on the East Coast Reflector system. I have included some recent pictures of “new old stock” Mastr II’s as they are being unboxed to sell at auction. GE changed the Mastr II cabinet color in later years to gray and black, which carried on with the Mastr III series. I think this speaks well of the reliability, brand-new spare units, now retiring, never “called to service”.

Henry Hamblin, WB4IVB

YACHT NEWS for April 30, 2022 - By Captain Ed KG8CX

Young Amateurs Communications Ham Team, K8KDZ Sailing Through Radio Waves
Connecting Young Hams, Creating Friendships, Expanding the Voice of Youth in Ham Radio
Inspiring Youth with Enjoyment & Technology of Ham Radio

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Follow us on Facebook, Chat sessions, Youth Net, YACHT News
Echolink node #954283, Chat sessions M-F 7pm CDST, Youth Net Sat. 7pm CDST
Linked to Meganets on all sessions, W8PIF-R on Sat. only, KC0NUK-R
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NATIONAL TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK, MAY 1-7, Thanks to those teachers among us
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NET REVIEW... Another nice collection of callsigns from last Saturday. Youth joining our net: 2W0KYH, K0NNK, KC3OTG, KN4VKY, KN4VKW, KE8TJU, KC1OGE, KE8RJU, KE0ZNV, KI5KEK, KI5MLA, KI5MLB,YS1YXI, N8JJM, K0EFW, and of course all others who climbed on board. Appreciate you all.

CHAT SESSIONS... Monday: Youth hams: AI7HE, KE8RJU, KE0ZNV, KI5QBQ, K0NNK, 9W2IXY, N8JJM, K9GVN. Tuesday: Stations checking in include YS1YXI, AI7HE, KE8RJU, KE8TJU, KE0ZNV, N8JJM, KE0ZNV and K5NO
Let's have more during Wednesday's chat session, especially our newer members. Climb aboard and enjoy the cruise with your fellow hams.

ARRL YOUTH LICENSING GRANT... Important news for youth under 18 http://www.arrl.org/youth-licensing-grant-program

HAM LICENSES 2000 TO PRESENT...Now this is interesting. Video showing license totals in numerous countries. https://youtu.be/pA4cAdDxX4o
Watch how they increase and decrease by year. Note the U.S numbers.

YOTA HAMVENTION NEWS... YOTA will be at Hamvention 2022. Here is their schedule https://youthontheair.org/hamvention2022/

HAMVENTION FORUMS... Several of our outstanding youth will be major speakers this year. Katie KE8LQR will be the main speaker at the YL Reunion on Fri. PM. Then on Sat AM, 5 of our members will give presentations at Carole Perry's youth forum. Check the link for complete schedule https://hamvention.org/event-details/forums/
YACHT will again be very evident at the World's largest ham gathering. We are all proud of their accomplishments.

MEMBER VIEW... One of our very active youth, Mr. POTA N8JJM. Check out his bio and note all the certificates http://www.qrz.com/db/n8jjm

MEMBER UPGRADE... Just received word that Aidan Dow K1ARD #152 has upgraded to Extra class. His Mom also got her Technician. Two of his siblings tried but didn't quite make it. They will try again in June or July but in meantime may connect up with us as "3rd party." We haven't heard from Aidan in quite a while, but that may change. He joined YACHT in 2016 when he was 12.

YOUNG HAM PROMOTER...Check out the F.B. site of this YL. Note her intro text. She mirrors what we in YACHT believe in https://www.facebook.com/yu3awa
She can also be seen on You Tube. Here is her QRZ page http://www.qrz.com/db/yu3awa

NEW MEMBERS WELCOME... Our two newest members are Dan Foley http://www.qrz.com/db/n8ren and his dad Dan http://www.qrz.com/db/w8mar
We are pleased to have them on board the YACHT team and hope to hear from them soon.

BIRTHDAY CALL... Happy Birthday to Hunter N8PEN on May 8.

EAST COAST REFLECTOR NEWS... Read their April 16 edition. If you scroll down you will see a recent YACHT NEWS posted. Thanks to Michael K2SHF.

COLT CLARK & FAMILY... This music group, who have been shown here many times has a major announcement. Watch and hear it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWZJpqcsVFs
And here is their latest number on Bellamy's 8th birthday https://youtu.be/4-uquQIGyeg

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73, Have a Great Week everyone and enjoy all that Ham Radio offers you.
Ed Engleman KG8CX
yacht logo

http://yacht.younghams.org/
http://yachthams.webstarts.com/index.html
http://w8pif.webstarts.com/index.html
http://www.qrz.com/db/k8kdz

FACILITATORS
Dick WB2JPQ
Henry WB4IVB
Emil WA2UPK
Bob KB3SNM
Tony W2KJV
Kevin VE3BZ
Paul W4END
David KB4FXC
Kevin KE7K
Joe KO4FRR
Mike K2CMT
Michael K2SHF
Steve K2EJ
Keynon KB5GLC
Dan KD2VNU

ECR ACCESS
IRLP 9050
AllStar 27339, 45192, 45225
Echolink WB2JPQ-R(57780), WB2JPQ-L(375103)
DMR Brandmeister 3129973
DMR TGIF 9050
System Fusion 44444, 92805
DStar XRF(XLX)256E
HamShack Hotline 94049
P25 31582, 9050
M17 M17-ECR Module A

NETS
Tech Net
     Tuesdays 8PM ET
Morning Brew
     Mon-Fri 7AM ET
YACHT Youth Net
     Wednesdays 8PM ET

WEBPAGE
http://eastcoastreflector.com

ZOOM ROOM
Open 24/7. All are welcome!
ID: 83929643320
Password: 193414
http://bit.ly/ecrdaily

MERCH SHOP
http://bit.ly/ecrshop

TECH NET LOG
http://bit.ly/ecrtechnet

YOUTUBE CHANNEL
http://bit.ly/ecrYouTube